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I did read about the fusss provoqued by the raport, especialy the mention of the potential risk represented by the returning veterants from Irak and Afganistan, but to me the risk ( than they could be recruted into extremist groups ) may exist after all., the reintegration of those comming back from war especialy the Viet-nam war, proved to be to be diffucult, and the present economy won't help. Labeling the veterant as a treat is exessif, but the raport didn't go that far, (and we should keep on memory what happened at Oklahoma City)

A Japanese housewife and mother of two is hoping to beat George Foreman's record as the oldest boxer to win a World Boxing Association (WBA) title.
Kazumi Izaki is trying to become the oldest world champion at 45 years 11 months - two months older than George Foreman was for his heavyweight belt.

Looks like some of the workers aren't very happy at the idea of forcing Toyota to relocate out of their country which means that the chances of solving this case is close to impossible. How many of the Venezuela workers don't mind losing their jobs?

Looks like some of the workers aren't very happy at the idea of forcing Toyota to relocate out of their country which means that the chances of solving this case is close to impossible. How many of the Venezuela workers don't mind losing their jobs?

Tokyo (May 3): When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn't expect a backlash. After all, the finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries.

But Google failed to judge how its offering would be received, as it has often done in Japan. The company is now facing inquiries from the Justice Ministry and angry accusations of prejudice because its maps detailed the locations of former low-caste communities.

The maps date back to the country's feudal era, when shoguns ruled and a strict caste system was in place. At the bottom of the hierarchy were a class called the burakumin, ethnically identical to other Japanese but forced to live in isolation because they did jobs associated with death, such as working with leather, butchering animals and digging graves.

Lingering prejudice
Castes have long since been abolished, and the old buraku villages have largely faded away or been swallowed by Japan's sprawling metropolises. Today, rights groups say the descendants of burakumin make up about three million of the country's 127 million people.

But they still face prejudice, based almost entirely on where they live or their ancestors lived. Moving is little help, because employers or parents of potential spouses can hire agencies to check for buraku ancestry through Japan's elaborate family records, which can span back over a hundred years.

An employee at a large, well-known Japanese company, who works in personnel and has direct knowledge of its hiring practices, said the company actively screens out burakumin jobseekers.

"If we suspect that an applicant is a burakumin, we always do a background check to find out," she said. She agreed to discuss the practice only on condition that neither she nor her company be identified.

Lists of "dirty" addresses circulate on Internet bulletin boards. Some surveys have shown that such neighbourhoods have lower property values than surrounding areas, and residents have been the target of racial taunts and graffiti. But the modern locations of the old villages are largely unknown to the general public, and many burakumin prefer it that way.

Google Earth's maps pinpointed several such areas. One village in Tokyo was clearly labeled eta, a now strongly derogatory word for burakumin that literally means "filthy mass". A single click showed the streets and buildings that are currently in the same area.

Officials angered
The company's basic stance is that its actions are acceptable because they are legal, one that has angered burakumin leaders.

"If there is an incident because of these maps, and Google is just going to say 'it's not our fault' or 'it's down to the user', then we have no choice but to conclude that Google's system itself is a form of prejudice," said Mr Toru Matsuoka, a member of Japan's upper house of parliament.

Mr Matsuoka, whose Osaka office borders one of the areas shown, also serves as secretary-general of the Buraku Liberation League, Japan's largest such group. After discovering the maps last month, he raised the issue to Justice Minister Eisuke Mori at a public legal affairs meeting on March 17.

Two weeks later, after the public comments and at least one reporter contacted Google, the old Japanese maps were suddenly changed, wiped clean of any references to the buraku villages. There was no note made of the changes, and they were seen by some as an attempt to quietly dodge the issue.

Maps aren't neutral
The maps in question are part of a larger collection of Japanese maps owned by the University of California at Berkeley. Their digital versions are overseen by Mr David Rumsey, a collector in the United States who has more than 100,000 historical maps of his own. He hosts more than 1,000 historical Japanese maps as part of a massive, English-language online archive he runs, and says he has never had a complaint.

It was Mr Rumsey who worked with Google to post the maps in its software, and who was responsible for removing the references to the buraku villages. He said he preferred to leave them untouched as historical documents, but decided to change them after the search company told him of the complaints from Tokyo.

"We tend to think of maps as factual, like a satellite picture, but maps are never neutral, they always have a certain point of view," he said.

Yeah, I've been following this one.... it is just totally bizarre to me that this is still an issue. I knew there was an "unspoken upper caste" of powerful families/clans behind the facade of egalitarian society in Japan ... but that there were still aspersions about lower caste heritage from generations before is kind of jaw-dropping.

This is something of real interest to me. I selected to do a course entitled 'ethnic minorities in Japan' simply cause I live as one in most places in the world, and we had a few lessons on the Burakumin.
The caste system isn't too far off from the kinds and attitudes that are in India, however given Japan's obsession with cleanliness which a good majority is tied in with Shinto, which typically rejects death related things in most cases, so it's not surprising that they run background checks to include this.
(Well it's been reported many a time, just gets hidden under the carpet)
It's similar to the background checks that some companies run to find out if a person has pure Japanese blood for something like at least 3 generations (or just throughout).
But this subject is one that is very well hidden, so to bring it to light like this... well most nations would wanna keep it on the downlow to be honest. It's the kinda hypocrisy that all humans engage in but don't wanna admit:

We need someone to skin the animals for meat, clean the streets, make leather for the Samurai's armour, bury the dead from the countless useless wars we have and to make sure that disease doesn't emerge from the rot.
But instead of praising or appreciating the people who do this for us, we're gonna disregard their existance or worth as a fellow human being.

It's not as severe as it used to be and chances are that a lot of young natives won't really be aware of such a thing, but Japan doesn't do too well with this thing called 'shame', especially in public...
Well... I guess it's a double edged sword. Those who'd wanna use this info to track down burakumin areas outta distaste, could also do so, i suppose.

Thanks for the link though <3 - Kinda resurrected a few memories for me, gonna follow it up a little more

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Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere. - Van Wilder"If you ain't laughin', you ain't livin'." - Carlos Mencia

Out of curiosity, do they still persecute people who hold those jobs today? Or just if their ancestors did those jobs? Basically, is it just an irrational caste thing tied to heritage or is it a general disgust with those professions that gets connected to an irrational caste thing?

Out of curiosity, do they still persecute people who hold those jobs today? Or just if their ancestors did those jobs? Basically, is it just an irrational caste thing tied to heritage or is it a general disgust with those professions that gets connected to an irrational caste thing?

By persecute, the extreme extent (so I'd like to think) would be big companies doing the usual background ethnicity checks and rejecting them because of their ancestary.
To a degree I guess, those with burakumin ancestary still live in relative exclusion or have to be careful of what they say and to who.

As for present issues, I think those who do those jobs now wouldn't be persuecuted or shunned openly like before but they'd be in the countryside somewhere making their living in relative peace anyways.
However if they wanted to come to Tokyo to work for a profilic company and it was found that they used to do 'such and such' undesirable job, then prejudice may affect them from progressing.
It wouldn't be the 'we're higher than you social class wise' but more 'you did this kind of job that falls under burakumin category, thanks but no thanks.'

That's my assumption may I add based on how current attitudes fare around here, by no means is it law and if you can, look into it some where and check it out

__________________

Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere. - Van Wilder"If you ain't laughin', you ain't livin'." - Carlos Mencia

Looking at many of the other stories on that site, it seems to be run by UFO nuts. ("Onoes! Space debris is really ufos!")That pic is obviously photoshopped, and nothing about that story really adds up. A search for Dr. Morris Charles NASA turns up mainly this story on other known ufo nut sites and after a few pages some guys with similiar names like a geologist named Charles Morris who had a book on fossils published in 1896 and a book on the San Francisco earthquake that's been republished quite a bit. Not to say this Morris Charles guy isn't real and didn't work for NASA, but if he was a "noted scientist" I'd think a search of his name would uncover a paper he published or something. I think it's safe to say this story is not true.

By persecute, the extreme extent (so I'd like to think) would be big companies doing the usual background ethnicity checks and rejecting them because of their ancestary.
To a degree I guess, those with burakumin ancestary still live in relative exclusion or have to be careful of what they say and to who.

As for present issues, I think those who do those jobs now wouldn't be persuecuted or shunned openly like before but they'd be in the countryside somewhere making their living in relative peace anyways.
However if they wanted to come to Tokyo to work for a profilic company and it was found that they used to do 'such and such' undesirable job, then prejudice may affect them from progressing.
It wouldn't be the 'we're higher than you social class wise' but more 'you did this kind of job that falls under burakumin category, thanks but no thanks.'

That's my assumption may I add based on how current attitudes fare around here, by no means is it law and if you can, look into it some where and check it out

I suspect it also slaps people in terms of upper-crust families ruling out certain people marrying into their clan for lesser ancestry. It may also affect job applicants trying to get into law firms or into certain executive circles. However, as egalitarian as the US purports to be... there's a fair amount of that sort of crap that happens here as well -- its just less noticeable spread across such a huge country with so many competing opportunities. (e.g. oh we only let the *right kind* of people into our country club, etc (shhh, no white trash, shhh)).

Quote:

that "moon statue"

I think KarumA has just found a news source that is less credible than Weekly World News (home of the Bat Boy).
Pseudoscience crap and bad photoshopping at its silliest .... the comments section makes me pound my forehead against the wall.

I thought the guy claiming this as evidence that the lunar landing was a hoax was funny though. Poor conspiracy nuts, what to they do when the conspiracies they believe in start becoming mutually exclusive?